How to convince a family member to be energy conscious

GasPants

MWT said

I'd be inclined to let the current change to using 'sleep' mode settle in and go hunting for other areas to save on before returning to the PC again as it is obviously a point of contention.

Also consider that unless there is anything important being powered by the always on USB ports, the PC can just be turned off at the socket overnight.

He will not turn the socket off overnight  - lol, but I tend to agree. I will wait until the October increase before bringing it up again. 

sandy700

mumf said:

Honest question: Why would a person not want to save money? We turn stuff off as a routine. Just sayin’…

sockets in places that can't easily be switched off?

Astria

Even if everything connected to the USB ports drew 500mA (very much doubt it will) that's still only 2.5W. My PC with all the USB gadgets connected (can't be bothered to disconnect them) uses 1W according to my energy monitor, even with the monitors in standby rather than being turned off, so no point is turning off at the wall unless I'm going on holiday - then I'm thinking more along the lines of "Less stuff plugged in - less chance of a fire or explosion whilst I'm away".

GasPants

wittynamegoeshere said:

Has he said why he doesn't want to switch it off?  Does he leave the car engine running while not using it?  Perhaps leave the oven on too, you never know when you might fancy baking something in a hurry.

He doesn't want the hassle of switching it back on again.
Don't mention the oven - he puts it on for 20 minutes to warm up a single plate. Likes to press the PowerBoost on the induction hob. He likes to have very long showers (electric 9kW). He's very generous by nature. 

Alnat1

There are different points where money saving becomes too inconvenient for each of us. They make sense to us but not always to others.

My example, I'm happy to switch TV and set top box of at plug each night, might only save me £20-£30 a year. It takes a couple of seconds to do, seems no inconvenience to me but I won't give up my tumble dryer. Too much time and effort to hang out, fetch in and then have to iron the blinking lot. Clothes from the dryer don't need ironing and hubby tends to empty it and put all the clothes away, as I have trouble getting upstairs carrying the basket (bad ankle and need to hold rail).

In my head it all makes sense but most of you would consider me slightly crazy.

Spies

Alnat1 said:

There are different points where money saving becomes too inconvenient for each of us. They make sense to us but not always to others.

My example, I'm happy to switch TV and set top box of at plug each night, might only save me £20-£30 a year. It takes a couple of seconds to do, seems no inconvenience to me but I won't give up my tumble dryer. Too much time and effort to hang out, fetch in and then have to iron the blinking lot. Clothes from the dryer don't need ironing and hubby tends to empty it and put all the clothes away, as I have trouble getting upstairs carrying the basket (bad ankle and need to hold rail).

In my head it all makes sense but most of you would consider me slightly crazy.

See I've always considered a tumble dryer to be a waste for just the two of us, but it has been a hassle drying outside, we don't have a garden so have to use a clothes airer, then the wind blows it over and it just gets annoying.

Maybe I'll look into a dryer 

EssexHebridean

Everyone has a tipping point I reckon beyond which it goes from "a sensible way of saving money, even if only pennies" to "a pain in the proverbial that impacts on quality of life, even if just in a small way". My personal example would be that the TV is always turned off at the switch on the set overnight, never left on standby, but the sky box stays on all the time because around 50% of the time when I remember something I want to record I'm not at home, and by the time I get home I'd have forgotten all about it. It also very much depends on the amount of money concerned - I'm more than happy to get up a few minutes earlier on a weekend to use the shower on cheap rate, for example (Although that won't happen so much in winter - I am NOT setting foot out of bed on a weekend day in winter when there is still a "6" at the beginning of the display on the clock!)

Sometimes a compromise needs to be made to maintain harmony - use the energy on the bigger savings perhaps. 

Alnat1

Curious now as to how much electricity an iron uses per hour in comparison to a tumble dryer. Haven't ironed in years and forgotten which cupboard it's hidden at the back of, to check wattage.

With solar tumble drying is "free" on a bright day too 

si_74

ariarnia said:

linked to this (it's hard for people to understand why they should use less if they dont understand what they've used). can anyone explain how the units on the metre relate to billable units? 

electric seems strait forward with an opening read of 1004, a closing read of 1133 meaning a bill for 129 kwh at the contracted rate. 

but gas is harder to understand (not sure if it's a metric vs imperial thing?)

opening read of 9227, closing read of 9228, a bill for 32.16 kwh 

meter is cubic feet,

Yes electricity is very straight forward.

Most gas meters will now be measured in cubic metres, so guessing your is an older one. So you need to convert that first from cubic feet.

9227 to 9228 is 1 (good at maths me! :-)) multiply this by 2.83 to get to cubic metres = 2.83m.

The conversion from this to kwh is quite complex, including calorific values (how good and efficient the gas is) and such like that nobody understands, but as a general rule if you multiply this by 11.2 you wont be far away so 2.83 x 11.2 = 31.67kwh. Pretty close to your final bill, not perfect but near enough for most purposes.

For those with gas meters already in cubic metres the 11.2 multiplier remains the same, but they do not need to do the 2.83 conversion.

Alnat1

Bosch says my tumble dryer will use 1.21kWh to dry a half load of cottons, 2.13kWh for a full load of cottons. I usually have a fairly full load of mixed fabrics which dry faster so I'm going to say 1.8kWh.

If anyone can let me know how long it takes to iron a full load of washing (no button down shirts in there but I do want my socks doing, they get crispy on the washing line) I'll try find out how much electricity that would use.